Electric Fence advice

Been put in RR tie corners and bracing, clearing trees brush and all that FUN stuff to get this pature set up. Next chore will be to run the wire. Going with 4 strands of barbwire, and 2 runs of electric. One just above the bottem barbwire and on up near the 3 and 4th wires. My current electric fence around the cow yard is quit weak( one wire and a red snapper 5 mile fencer. It never seems to have any juice but the cows dont bother the fence, little calves crawl half through and eat grass. So I want a good, make em all learn zapper around the perimitor of the new pasture, especially since I will more than certain have to get a bull and I dont want the coyotes bothering the cattle. SOOOO any good advice on how to make a darn good electric fence, lightning gaurds, enough juice, best way to ground etc, etc?

Find a good, locally owned farm supply place that will work on their fence chargers when they go bad. Notice I said when, not if. Some chargers are not designed to be worked on, I got the story from TSC that it was cheaper just to replace them. Parmak is a good repairable brand, but you might have to get a 50 mile charger. I have one on a short run of wire(so far) and it clicks on the phone line. I have 8 ground rods and it still clicks. Bought a cheaper one, a SACO XX which is a 20 mile charger. It quit working and I am going to take it back for repair while the warrenty is still good.
Get a good commercial ground rod and hook it up with heavy wire. You may have to water the ground rod in dry weather.
Your wireing system sounds fine. I would put the bottom hot wire as high as reasonably possible because it will take grass that much longer to grow up to the wire.

KEH

Back when I was still at home, Dad had a "weed chopper" electric fenser......boy it was hot.....after it was on a week Dad trrned it off.......month later turn it back on.......etc.....

I have used several different brands of fence charger and only have two that were worth having, in my opinion ar Gallagher and Premier1(www.premier1supplies.com). If you live in a high rainfall area where dry ground is not a problem, the Gallagher works very well since it is a low impedence charger. If your conditions vary, and the ground can get dry in the late summer then Premier 1 has the wide impedence chargers that provide a high shock even on dry ground relative to a low impedence charger. Neuither of these chargers are cheap but I have a 12 old Gallagher and a 4 year old Premier1 solar that have never needed maintenance.

The secret to good charger performance is the ground system. In really dry conditions, you may have to run a separate ground wire about 4 inches below every hot wire to make sure the animals are shocked since the impedence through a normal ground contact situation is too high.
get your self a good digital voltmeter to check you fence with. They are spendy but they"ll tell if the fence will keep the animals where you want them. Some of them will even tell you where the short is when you have that problem. My Preimer1 solar will keep a 3/4 mile clean line at 6400V and the gaalgher is in the same league. They have blown me out of my socks on several occaisions!

hope this helps.
These chargers are not cheep

The most important thing is to have a good ground
NO pipes driven in with wires wrapped around them
Ground it as you would a circuit breaker entrance
box. If you run a wire underground to get around
gates, wire used in houses is only good for 500 V
a fencer puts out 15,000 Use wire made for the
purpose. Wherever you make a connection, use a
split bolt connector.
Kencove fencing

Dave, I would recommend a Gallagher fencer. They are a bit more money but well worth it. I have Gallagher Wrangler models. They are cheap as Gallagher's go but they throw a 3/4 inch spark. I bought my first one 5 years ago and its still going strong. I now have four of them on different farms. I bought my latest two on ebay for $80, cheapest I've found. If I have a jumping short on a calm day I can hear it snap from 1000 yards away. The red snappers used to be decent then they were bought out by Zabra or something like that now they are junk. They rarely last more than a year and they get weaker everyday you use them. Gallagher has a website with tips on fence construction.

Just fixed a red snapper with the Agway brand name on it.66b.Very few parts in it,made cheap.The top models were better but cost for parts was very high.Zareba changed the internals and doesnt supply parts for the old models.They couldnt supply a transformer.Zareba tends to replace the complete internals for their chargers at 40 bucks.I did warranty work when the company was called American Farm Works,they were a pia so I sold off parts I had on hand for them.

A good electric fence doesnt need barbed wire on it.